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Nitrate-Induced Carbohydrate Accumulation in Chlorella sorokiniana and its Potential for Ethanol Production

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Abstract

Microalgae are considered promising feedstocks for biofuel and bio-product generation. The algal carbohydrates can be hydrolyzed into sugars before their fermentation into ethanol. In this study, nutrient limitation strategy was employed to evaluate the biochemical composition of Chlorella sorokiniana. Limiting nitrate (1.0 g/L KNO3) in the culture medium increased the total carbohydrate and starch content of microalga by 50.28 and 34.06%, respectively. However, this significantly lowered their yield due to low microalgal biomass production. Cultivation of C. sorokiniana cells with 4.0 g/L KNO3 as nitrogen source for 8 days was optimum for bioethanol production as the highest total carbohydrate yield of 422.44 mg/L was obtained under these conditions. Nitrate limitation (1.0 g/L KNO3) favored the increased production of high-value carotenoids in C. sorokiniana that could further contribute to improving the economics of the bioethanol production process. Feasibility studies for ethanol production from C. sorokiniana revealed that a maximum of 13.86 mg/mL of reducing sugars was extracted in the hydrolysate by treating the microalgal biomass with 2.8% sulfuric acid at 121 °C for 30 min. Fermentation of acid hydrolysate produced ethanol at a concentration of 2.91 mg/mL in 96 h with 41.16% of theoretical yield.

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Acknowledgements

Authors are thankful to the Head, Department of Renewable Energy Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, for providing the necessary facilities to carry out this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, 141004, India

    Amanpreet Kaur

  2. Department of Renewable Energy Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana 141004, India

    Monica Sachdeva Taggar & Manpreet Singh

  3. Electron Microscopy and Nanoscience Laboratory, Department of Soil Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana 141004, India

    Anu Kalia

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  1. Amanpreet Kaur
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  2. Monica Sachdeva Taggar
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  4. Manpreet Singh
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Contributions

MST and AK conceived and designed the experimental study. MS was involved in the experimental setup. APK performed the experiments and collected data. The manuscript was written and edited by APK, MST, and AK.

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Correspondence to Monica Sachdeva Taggar.

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Fig. S1

Growth (a.u.) of C. sorokiniana grown in a medium containing different potassium nitrate levels. Values are mean ± standard error of three replicates (DOCX 18 KB)

Fig. S2

Fresh biomass and dry biomass (mg/L) of C. sorokiniana grown in a medium containing different potassium nitrate levels. Values are mean ± standard error of three replicates (DOCX 21 KB)

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Kaur, A., Taggar, M.S., Kalia, A. et al. Nitrate-Induced Carbohydrate Accumulation in Chlorella sorokiniana and its Potential for Ethanol Production. Bioenerg. Res. 15, 253–263 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-021-10292-2

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